The present invention relates to a treatment apparatus which generates cold and hot winds by supplying an air having a low dew point (after being compressed, liquefied or dried subsequent to a compression step) to a vortex tube while the air cleanliness level is improved, oily substances and solid particles are removed to a negligible extent. While being able to be applied to industrial use such as cooling of IC chips or other works, the apparatus is a cold and hot wind producer which finds other applications in the medical field, for example, a laser beam medical apparatus such as a laser surgical knife.
As examples of the laser beam medical treatment apparatus like a laser surgical knife, there have been proposed a laser medical treatment device which cools the diseased skin under treatment by jetting thereto an atomized mixture fluid of a gas and a liquid while the laser beam irradiattion is being conducted for treatment (Japanese Pat. Appln. Pub. No. 07051287) or a device and method for cooling the skin during the laser beam treatment by means of an electronic (Peltier effect) cooling means (Japanese Pat. Appln. Pub. No. 10-165523). Further, there has been proposed a method in which a cold liquid is sprayed, a cold storage medium such as a polymeric gel water absorbing agent or a chilling agent showing an endothermic reaction is applied directly on the diseased skin. However, the treatment by the laser beam by use of the laser beam surgical knife creates the need for the diseased skin to be locally cooled and for the cooling medium to be dried during the treatment but any of the above mentioned prior art methods will not meet the requirements to control the laser beam treatment. Further, the conventional electronic (Peltier effect) cooling device is so difficult to handle that it is impossible to place the device on the diseased skin. Therefore, the present invention is aimed at producing cold and hot winds by means of a vortex tube, connect such wind producing device to the laser beam means such as the laser surgical knife, the ultrasonic surgical knife, or the massaging device for ease of operation such that any diseased skin portion is cooled by the cold wind from the vortex tube which efficiently produces cool and hot winds while maintaining a high level of air cleanliness acceptable for medical use by reducing oily substances, solid particles or odors. In this connection, said vortex tube is an instrument constructed on the basis of the vortex effect which was discovered by a French physicist by the name of Georges Ranque in the first half of this century and evaluated by Rudolph Hilsch in his thesis in mid 1940s. In general, the tube constructed on the basis of this effect is known "Hilsch Tube". There is a conventional cold wind producing device which is aimed at saving the energy by producing a cool wind by means of such vortex tube after the moisture is removed by a membrane module or the like. (Japanese Pat. Appln. Pub. No. 7-332780). However, such a device tends to be large sized and creates problems in attaching the same to the medical device because the membrane module must be attached onto the vortex tube.
There are printed publications using other examples of Japanese Pat. Appln. Pub. No. 6-307731) which discloses that compressed air is introduced into a vortex tube to produce a low-temperature air and a high temperature air for use of air-conditioning. Another publication is Japanese Pat. Appln. Pub. No. 9-4937 which is directed to the vortex tube per se. There is a further publication which is Japanese Pat. Appln. Pub. No. 9-159298 disclosing a vortex tube for use in a cooling system in general.
However, all of these printed publications fail to disclose that such vortex tube is mounted onto the hand piece for medical treatment in such a manner that the jetted air is locally directed to any diseased portion.